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Real Jerk eatery’s new fight: Residents oppose liquor licence

The Real Jerk wants to move into the ground floor of a Queen St. E. condo building but residents are trying to block it from selling alcohol.

Ed and Lily Pottinger at the new location of their restaurant, The Real Jerk -- the main floor of a condo building where residents are fighting their liquor licence application. (Colin McConnell / Toronto Star)

By Donovan VincentStaff Reporter

Sun., Dec. 23, 2012

The fight between the Real Jerk restaurant and its landlord was a nasty public tussle that ended with the eviction of the popular east-end Toronto eatery earlier this year.

Owner Ed Pottinger and his wife, Lily, promised to sell their jerk chicken and rotis at a new spot, but that’s now stalled over a liquor licence dispute.

The Pottingers want to sign a lease to move into the ground floor of a stylish six-storey condo a few blocks west of their former stand-alone building at Queen St. E. and Broadview Ave.

Their plans to sell alcohol, as they did at their former location, are on hold because 40 residents in the condo are challenging the licence application. The condo has nearly 70 units.

The Pottingers have building permits to fix up the empty 2,000-square-foot space, which would hold as many as 92 customers.

But the residents have written to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario claiming the sale of alcohol will cause problems for the building, primarily noise.

The province’s Licence Appeal Tribunal must now decide whether permitting the Real Jerk to sell booze is “in the public interest.’’

The application can either be turned down, approved, or approved with conditions, a commission spokesperson explained.

The Pottingers say the decision will determine if they sign the lease.

Ed Pottinger didn’t want to talk about the matter in detail, given it’s at a sensitive stage, except to say he takes the residents’ noise concerns very seriously and is working with the building’s owner to ensure noise is kept at appropriate levels.

“We’ve come up with a resolution that the builder will put sound baffling in place to help with the noise issue,’’ Pottinger said.

Because the city has a dwindling supply of stand-alone buildings for businesses such as restaurants to operate in, this mixed-use approach is a common option.

But as this case demonstrates, there can be tangles.

Paula Fletcher, the city councillor for the area, said the empty ground floor space is zoned commercial, which permits a restaurant owner to sell alcohol there.

“The city wants commercial at grade, in all buildings. That’s basically a requirement in mixed-use areas — you want commercial on main avenues, and above it, residential. That’s the street pattern that exists,’’ said Fletcher, adding the liquor dispute does not involve the city.

The problems seem to have started about a month ago when a notice about the licence application was posted on the building’s front window at street level, Fletcher said.

“I heard from somebody in the condo, they wanted to know what was going on, they wanted to stop this.’’

Dom Conte, a member of the building’s condo board, declined comment Sunday. And a representative for Streetcar Developments, the builder, was not in a position to comment at this time.

Residents were also reticent to comment on the dispute.

But several letters have been sent to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission by residents challenging the licence application.

“I also believe that our property values will decrease with a bar on our main floor,’’ resident Dawn Howat wrote.

“My priority is to live in a peaceful place where I can go to bed at 10 p.m. without disturbance, so that I can get to work the next day. If I can’t sleep here, I can’t live here,’’ Howat said, adding “a liquor licence does not make sense at this location.’’

Howat couldn’t be reached for comment.

Rob Davis, an agent working on behalf of the Real Jerk, said the condo building is not located in a quiet spot in the first place — directly beside the Don Valley Parkway, on heavily travelled Queen St. E. with its 24-hour streetcar.

“If we stood on the corner talking at this tone, you wouldn’t hear me. It’s a noisy corner,’’ Davis said.

He added that at a recent open house held to explain the restaurant plan, condo owners suggested the Real Jerk move to a bigger building, asking “why here?”

But Davis argued the building is an ideal location because most of the people on a 4,000-name “Save the Jerk’’ petition circulated during the eviction dispute live nearby.

No date has been set for the liquor matter, but Davis expects the tribunal to deal with it sometime in January.

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